Home From Home

Sun 16 Nov 2014, 16:26

Yes, good fun!

Sun 16 Nov 2014, 08:10

I think that's lovely. Well done.

Fri 14 Nov 2014, 22:13

It's so cold outside I thought everyone could use some warming up; especially with the 'Market Street Slasher' still at large. This is a piece of flash fiction I wrote for the Bridport Prize early this year in response to our dear old camper van (now sadly passed on), being abused by the vehicle-smashing-villain.

Regrettably it wasn't shortlisted so here it is to share:

Home From Home

We took her in; she couldn't survive out there - on the street.
We kept coming home to find her kicked and bashed.
Well, she's part of the family really, and we do have room.

The "Market Street Slasher" - been at it for years - police can't do anything and the villagers wont talk… Well, it's in their interest I suppose: to keep Mum.

So I watch over her from the kitchen window, pay the odd visit (not as much as I should). She's getting on, past it some might say, but she brings so much joy, freedom, even hope sometimes.

Yesterday evening I glanced out the window (as you do when washing up), and saw something move inside her. Trick of the eye in the dark, I thought, and checking back saw nothing - not a flicker, no sign of life.

Then, this morning I couldn't believe my eyes:
Curtains at the windows,
Fairy lights on the door,
Doylies on the table and
Hooked rugs on the floor.

"What do you think you are doing?" I ask the old lady inside.

"I've hung up my shoes," she crows, "turned over a new leaf - not getting any younger," she laments, "I'm through with the grief."

So, in the campervan she squats, while out on the street double-parked-cars stop vans in their tracks, unleashing a hullabaloo and cacophony of cuss, because a retired old lady fills an empty space; puts up her slipper'd feet to finally rest in peace.